


ii. and then, and then, and then

by asmaras



Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Other, Snapshots, i just really love this man, this is pretty much just stream of consciousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:08:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28579497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asmaras/pseuds/asmaras
Summary: Time kept on moving, tripping over its own feet and then, and then, and then.
Kudos: 8





	ii. and then, and then, and then

Christopher Pike is eight years old and his father is a monolith. The stars smear against an indigo sky, white dots of light that remind Chris that there is something that stretches far beyond the gasp of Earth’s cradle. He tells his father that he’d like to go to the stars one day and his father puts him on his shoulders so that he’s that much closer to the sky.

Christopher Pike is thirteen years old and his brother is a king among men. Nathan is a head taller than Chris and a decade older, and when he walks, he slows down his gait so that Chris doesn’t have to run to keep up with him. They hold hands while they ramble around their acres, unafraid of the audacious kind of love that their parents have raised all four of the Pike children with.

Christopher Pike is seventeen years old and his sister is raging. Ellen is quiet-mouthed and angry all the time, the mirror image of the man their father will become when their mother leaves his side twenty years too early, and Chris swears that Ellen sees it coming. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

Christopher Pike is nineteen years old and freshly graduated from the Academy. He is pinned with laurels and honors and pride, and his family sits on a throne of hard earned praise. They were counting on him, after all, to make good on the stars.

Christopher Pike is twenty eight years old and loves Julia more than he’s ever loved breathing or wanting or flying. She is tall and willowy and full of that fear of nothing that keeps him moving. They go home to Mojave so that she can meet his father and his siblings and visit his mother’s garden to pay their respects.

Christopher Pike is twenty nine years old and buries his future with his past. They tell him she felt no pain and that is no consolation when his heart is left beating bleeding broken.

Christopher Pike is thirty five years old and the Enterprise feels like what he’d dreamt freedom felt like. He stands at the shield and watches stars turn to light and then dark, and he thinks that Julia would have hated a cage.

Christopher Pike is forty eight years old and the Discovery is everything the Enterprise is not. They seem to fear nothing and that gives him pause just long enough to consider if he really means to spend the rest of his life chasing chaos in the name of honor. When Burnham catches him one hundred feet from the ground, he knows the answer is yes.

Christopher Pike is fifty one years old and an orphan finally. He never forgets what his father told him under the stars and carries it in his heart(carries it in his heart always).

Christopher Pike is fifty seven years old and his son folds his hands over the top of Chris’s head where they’re watching the stars. Taylor tells his father that he’d like to go to Earth one day and Chris swings him down to kiss his forehead so that his feet are closer to the ground.


End file.
